Mille Lacs – Barbless Hooks

I put this poll up in response to the comments in Dennis Anderson’s article. There were several people who suggested this is needed to reduce catch and release mortality. Curious as to what IDO’ers think.

-J.

100% barbless for fishing live bait, but barbs on something like a crankbait that won’t be swallowed are probably OK.

All the stuff thats going on with that lake and now through in needing to buy new tackle to fish it. That and the additional tickets that would be giving out just seem like more reasons to stay away. Would they make you remove all barbed hooks from being on the water?

I voted yes, but not for the obvious reason.

The MN DNR is repealing barbless hook regulations on many of our trout streams because their studies have show it doesn’t make a difference in mortality.

I would think this would translate over to walleyes as well(?)

I went with a yes vote because…

1. Once a fish is hooked, it’s hooked unless there’s slack in the line.
2. Taking the hook out is a snap with barbless.

I would suggest all anglers try it for a day. The biggest problem with barbless is angler confidence.

…with the above being said, I don’t know if we need a law that dictates this to us?

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All the stuff thats going on with that lake and now through in needing to buy new tackle to fish it. That and the additional tickets that would be giving out just seem like more reasons to stay away. Would they make you remove all barbed hooks from being on the water?

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Mike, take your regular hook and squeeze the barb down with at pliers. Instant barbless hook. Approved by the MN DNR.

I fished a Catch & Release only Walleye Lake among others in Manitoba where Barbless Hooks are the Law. Rarely lost a fish and sure makes releases go easy, especially when you’re catching 100+ a day.

I still use many of those lures, whether live bait or crankbaits back here in Minnesota and I don’t lose fish.

Yes, I voted for Barbless.
In Manitoba all that was required is you pinch the barb down.

Wish this to help.

barbless hooks is not goiong to help the issue…… in my opinion

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I voted yes, but not for the obvious reason.

The MN DNR is repealing barbless hook regulations on many of our trout streams because their studies have show it doesn’t make a difference in mortality.

I would think this would translate over to walleyes as well(?)

I went with a yes vote because…

1. Once a fish is hooked, it’s hooked unless there’s slack in the line.
2. Taking the hook out is a snap with barbless.

I would suggest all anglers try it for a day. The biggest problem with barbless is angler confidence.

…with the above being said, I don’t know if we need a law that dictates this to us?

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X2

I guess if you are or aren’t keeping the fish….
Both Will and Brian above said some agreeable things.

I to have fishihed barbless in Northwest Territories and didn’t notice a difference. I missed fish but I do with barbed also.
It certainly can’t hurt the situation.

Fish in Manitoba where barbless is the law and pinched many of my barbs off lures. Use these lures here in MN and really do not notice any difference except much easier to unhook the fish. If it saves some wear and tear on the fish I do not think it is unreasonable

It would help if guys didn’t feed the fish line for 10-30 seconds while lindy riggin. A drop of the rod tip is all you need to do for the walleyes on mille lacs. I don’t think the hooks are the problem. Maybe its how people handle them when out of the water, and how long they are out of the water for pictures while everyone gets there phones out to take a pic.
Wallster ><((((>

I vote yes for only one reason, it would be a good test for some potential statewide regs.

As for Mille Lacs, I believe it will make no difference. If everyone agrees, Mille Lacs is low on small make fish which are typically kept anyway. If there is no shortage of larger fish, than what are we protecting. Hooking mortality is not hurting larger slot fish populations. So why are we protecting them?

Not to say that we shouldn’t, do it and it wouldn’t help, just thinking logically to help address the issue at hand.

If you use a hook in mn your in violation just use nets

So, how do you keep live bait on the hook long enough to catch a fish? Are we thus going to no live bait?

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Hooking mortality is not hurting larger slot fish populations. So why are we protecting them?

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I think the big reason for Mille Lacs, hooking mortality is counted towards total non-tribal harvest quota. Less hooking mortality = more poundage for anglers to harvest.

Keep the votes/comments coming! This is interesting.

-J.

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All the stuff thats going on with that lake and now through in needing to buy new tackle to fish it. That and the additional tickets that would be giving out just seem like more reasons to stay away. Would they make you remove all barbed hooks from being on the water?

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Mike, take your regular hook and squeeze the barb down with at pliers. Instant barbless hook. Approved by the MN DNR.

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Better yet I would just go fish a different lake and not have to adjust my tackle. Would guess that there are many others that feel the same way. The constant changing of regs on that lake all ready drives people away. Throw some more unproven ones in there and Im sure it will help out.

How do you bend the bards back out for when I want them on another body of water?

Many of you know that I dont fish mille lacs much anymore even thou it was one of the main lakes I grew up fishing. Sure do feel for all of you guys that do call this body of water home. Going through this crap year after year is for the birds. Im kinda surprised anyone fishes up there anymore. No greater way to enjoy a day of fishing than wondering if you can do this or that, what size fish can I keep, how many and what is the reg going to be next week or whatever new reg they decide to put on the lake. That there is just a darn good way to drive people away from Mille lacs.

1) I bend down the barbs on most of my lures and I rarely have a hook “fall out”. I don’t think using barbless hooks will reduce the number of fish you land.

2) I agree with Brian; use of barbless hooks doesn’t necessarily guarantee lower release mortality. But it probably doesn’t hurt it either.

3) Keeping live bait on a barbless hook sounds challenging.

4) My guess is that this is one of the smaller real problems facing Mille Lacs, and is probably a distraction more than anything else.

Rootski

But then again keeping people away should help out the fish in that lake. So what you going to do?

But then again keeping people away should help out the fish in that lake. So what you going to do?

Voted yes simply because I would do anything no mater how small to help this lake become a great walleye destination again.
I am lucky as I love to catch any type of fish not just walleye and will be up there supporting the local economy yet again this year.With that said I know that walleye are the bread and butter of the resorts income and would love to see them rebound from the over harvest and mismanagement that has occurred over the last decade.

All Studies have been redone about barbless hooks and some have shown greater mortality to no difference due to over penetration of the barbless hook. That is why DNR are doing away with barbless regs. Perhaps circle hooks may help more as many costal states have required for live bait fishing. Their studies proved it does not matter if a barbed or barbless hook penetrates the gullet you will have hooking mortality. Circle hooks had the lowest hooking mortality of all live bait hooks. Barbless on lures makes unhooking very quick and easy and would benefit the resource. Some of the guys I fish with will not listen to me and always play out yards of line when rigging and gut almost every fish. Barbless will not make a difference. Watching other boats I would say that is quite normal. I drop rod back and let them have it hook most in the mouth. Also with the slot everybody is handling the fish trying to measure dropping 3 times taking a picture etc all dead fish. They need to either mandate circle hooks or only allow methods that don’t have them swallowing the bait. Jigs, artificial with barbless hooks. Perhaps C&R without measuring for a season that would cut down tremendously on mortality. Everyone on this board that fishes Mille Lacs has watched fish literally being thrown back after the dropping measuring and photos those are your floaters especially in summer from deep water. These are just my opinions

Mwal

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So, how do you keep live bait on the hook long enough to catch a fish? Are we thus going to no live bait?

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I can’t speak to minnows or worms/leechs, but I use 8 inch bullheads and 6 inch suckers >live<.

I will cast them off occasionally, but I can’t say I’ve ever notice them wiggling off. I would guess it does happen though.

Then again, I cast them off with a barbed hook too.

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How do you bend the bards back out for when I want them on another body of water?

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I feel your frustration Mike.

I was talking about all fishing on all lakes. Again, not for mortality, but for ease of extraction for the angler.

I can’t think of a time when a pliers is needed to remove a hook, but then I don’t use stick baits either.

Good post Mwal!

I voted NO!

I suggest going after the real problems, there are few of them and I do not believe barbless hooks is one of them.

It is the only lake I’ve fished for many years and still love it, 70 miles from home and a true trophy fishery.

Thanks for bringing this up! I have been crafting a post in my head for a few months now on this very topic.

My parents purchased a place on Mille Lacs this past summer. After a couple of weeks of fishing, my dad and I both made the commitment to fish 100% barbless on this this lake when targeting Walleyes.

I believe that fishing barbless for all presentations is beneficial. It is true that live bait fishing has the largest potential for gut hooking fish. However, swallowing the hook is not really the largest concern for safely releasing fish. If a live bait rig ends up in the stomach or deep in the throat, it won’t matter whether you have barbs or not. You are going to have a tough time getting the hook out either way. At that point, it is time to cut your line. In my opinion, it’s all about how much time the fish is spending on the deck of a boat.

I think that fishing crankbaits offers the largest threat for hooking mortality. More specifically, landing fish when using crankbaits has the greatest potential to damage the fish. And actually, this is the scenario that started the barbless conversation for us. A lot of times, the fish would barrel roll in the net, and our cranks would become so tangled up that the amount of time it took to get the fish unhooked was devastating. People could (and do) argue that using a conservation net would help with that. In some instances, I would agree. However, we try to leave the fish in the water whenever possible. We are generally leaning over the side of the boat handling the fish in an oversized net. Conservation nets are shallow, and are not conducive for handling fish in this manor. Once we started pinching the barbs, things became so simple. The tangles in the net fell apart, and the hooks always slid out of the fish like we were pulling them out of butter.

I will guarantee you that we lost fish because of this decision. This was especially apparent when we had inexperienced anglers in the boat that did not always keep a tight line. How many fish did we save versus how many fish did we lose? I have no idea, and I don’t really care. And yes, this also means that our cranks have barbless hooks on them when go fish other bodies of water. And again, I don’t really care. I just know that it feels great to think that when I put a fish in the net, getting the hooks out is the least of my concern. So now we use barbless for all of our presentations when fishing for walleye on Mille Lacs. I believe that if the lake regulations required this for all anglers, hooking mortality would be reduced.

I am not going to get on my high horse here, and say that you are not interested in handling fish appropriately if you are against barbless hooks. I just know that the decision felt good for my dad and I. If you can do something reasonable to help release fish safely, why not do it? Is an extra fish or two (or three or four) a day worth killing an extra fish or two? It was not for us.

-Drew

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Im kinda surprised anyone fishes up there anymore. No greater way to enjoy a day of fishing than wondering if you can do this or that, what size fish can I keep, how many and what is the reg going to be next week or whatever new reg they decide to put on the lake.

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Really Mike? It is not that difficult to figure out the rules of the lake, and follow them. You fish the river a lot, and border water rules are a lot more difficult to follow.

-Drew

x2 wallster!!

The new studies about barbless being as lethal as barbed also disproved that cutting the line does any good. They did long term captivity studies if the hook doesn’t pass most fish succumb to it from infection etc. Some do survive though. The thought now are that if you can get it out quickly you are better to do that. Most hooks are not plain steel. They have coatings,platings or are blends of metals otherwise they would rust in your tackle box or hanging on your rod immediately. Therefore they are not going to dissolve in a fish’s throat. Saltwater studies are different and they have proven non plated hooks do corrode quickly in fish with little apparent harm to the fish. I think this is were cutting the line and the hook will dissolve stories come from. Some of these hook removal studies were in back issues of Bassmaster and some were reported by studies done on trout in hatcheries out west where they can be watched for months rather than some studies done after tournaments in holding nets for a few days these watched them for months.

Mwal